Informs Seattle Dei Final 191020.Pdf, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Oct 2019
Informs Seattle Dei Final 191020.Pdf, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Scholarly research on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the decision sciences is largely concentrated in areas of management and organization design. However, DEI is relevant to other domains of inquiry, and can be understood in terms other than economic efficiency and organization effectiveness. I discuss what a research agenda in decision sciences would look like if DEI, and a focus on social costs and benefits and social justice were central to this work. Examples to be discussed include: the new economy, climate resilience and disaster response, and human services.
Decision Science For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Feb 2019
Decision Science For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Operations research, also known as management science or decision science, is a mathematics-based discipline that draws from engineering, information systems, management, public policy and planning. OR enables individuals and organizations to make better decisions regarding manufacturing and logistics, service provision and strategy design. My particular interest in OR focuses on the needs of mission-driven and resource-constrained organizations that serve urban communities. In my talk I will describe how OR can use qualitative and quantitative analysis through meaningful engagement of communities to enable creative identification, formulation and solution of complex problems for local impact and social justice. Specific applications I'm currently …
Michael Johnson Biography, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Jan 2019
Michael Johnson Biography, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
No abstract provided.
Community-Focused Problem-Solving With Operations Research And Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Jan 2019
Community-Focused Problem-Solving With Operations Research And Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
In these days of ‘analytics’, ‘big data’ and ‘smart cities’, many of us are aware of the importance of data and quantitative analytic methods for program design, implementation and evaluation. Less commonly-understood are specific tools and methods for community-based interventions in which the problem to be solved is unclear, and the ways in which data of many different kinds can be used to develop interventions that represent best-possible uses of organization and community resources. Moreover, it is also less commonly-understood how to put communities, and community members, near the center of problem-solving and decision-making.
Examples of challenging problems include: How …
Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Special Issue: Indices For The Betterment Of The Public, Vincent Charles, Ali Emrouznejad, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Oct 2018
Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Special Issue: Indices For The Betterment Of The Public, Vincent Charles, Ali Emrouznejad, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Over the years, the quest for a better society has led to the birth of a variety of composite indices of development, from the gross domestic product to the happiness index. These indices usually integrate various social, cultural, psychological, and political aspects and are considered of vital importance for evaluating a country's level of development and for assessing the impact of policy specially in public sector. Overall, they consist of numerical measures that describe the well-being of both the individual and the society as a whole.
The Special Issue of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences encourages original research articles of high quality …
Strengthening The Profession Through Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Oct 2018
Strengthening The Profession Through Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Diversity, equity and inclusion are well-studied and widely-practiced areas in organization design, human resources and many areas of social sciences. However, the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines are somewhat newer to the notion of diversity, equity and inclusion as a way to improve professions and contribute to substantive research within component disciplines. This is especially true for operations research and the decision sciences. In this talk, given to an interdisciplinary audience of engineering professors, administrators and students, I provide an introduction to operations research, to diversity, equity and inclusion within STEM and OR specifically, ways that DEI might …
Community Operational Research: A Survey Of The Discipline, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, Jason D. Wright, George Chichirau
Sep 2018
Community Operational Research: A Survey Of The Discipline, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, Jason D. Wright, George Chichirau
Michael P. Johnson
Community operational research (COR) is an extension of multiple OR/MS traditions to support participatory research, localized impact and social change. It applies critical thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, community participation and decision modeling to local interventions. It emphasizes the needs, voices and values of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. It rests on a foundation of meaningful engagement with communities. This presentation summarizes a multi-year effort to assemble cutting-edge research in COR in a special issue of European Journal of Operational Research available August 2018. We review principles for community OR, describe the breadth and diversity of the field through the experience of …
Emerging Trends And New Frontiers In Community Operational Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, George Chichirau
Jul 2018
Emerging Trends And New Frontiers In Community Operational Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, George Chichirau
Michael P. Johnson
Community operational research (Community OR), and its disciplinary relation, community-based operations research, has an increasingly high profile within multiple domains that benefit from empirical and analytic approaches to problem solving. These domains are primarily concentrated within nonprofit services and local development. However, there are many other disciplinary and application areas for which novel applications and extensions of COR could generate valuable insights. This paper identifies a number of these, distinguishing between ‘emerging trends’ (mostly in well-studied areas of operations research, management science and analytics) and ‘new frontiers’, which can be found in traditions not commonly oriented towards empirical and analytic …
Community-Based Participatory Research Through The Lens Of Decision Science, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Jun 2018
Community-Based Participatory Research Through The Lens Of Decision Science, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
This is a brief introduction to community-focused and community-engaged research through the perspective of the decision sciences. It is intended as a complement to similar approaches more generally situated in the social sciences.
Editorial: Special Issue: Community Operational Research: Innovations, Internationalization And Agenda-Setting Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley
Mar 2018
Editorial: Special Issue: Community Operational Research: Innovations, Internationalization And Agenda-Setting Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley
Michael P. Johnson
This is an editorial to a special issue of European Journal of Operational Research, titled "Special Issue: Community Operational Research: Innovations, Internationalization and Agenda-Setting Applications". This special issue is edited by Michael Johnson and Gerald Midgley. Editorial assistants are Jason Wright and George Chichirau. The anticipated publication date for the special issue is July 2018. The special issue is comprised of 31 papers, representing diverse application areas, methodologies, analytic methods and author countries of origin.
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Localized Interventions, Appropriate Methods, Social Impact, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Jan 2018
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Localized Interventions, Appropriate Methods, Social Impact, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Community-engaged operations research is an extension of multiple OR/MS traditions to support participatory research, localized impact and social change. It applies critical thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, community participation and decision modeling to local interventions. It emphasizes the needs, voices and values of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. It rests on a foundation of meaningful engagement with communities. Through a survey of current scholarship in two complementary areas of inquiry, ‘community operational research’ (referring to work by primarily European researchers) and ‘community-based operations research’ (referring to work by primarily American researchers), I develop principles for community-engaged OR, present critical questions that represent …
What Is Community Operational Research?, Gerald Midgley, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau
Dec 2017
What Is Community Operational Research?, Gerald Midgley, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau
Michael P. Johnson
Community Operational Research (Community OR) has been an explicit sub-domain of OR for more than 30 years. In this paper, we tackle the controversial issue of how it can be differentiated from other forms of OR. While it has been persuasively argued that Community OR cannot be defined by its clients, practitioners or methods, we argue that the common concern of all Community OR practice is the meaningful engagement of communities, whatever form that may take – and the legitimacy of different forms of engagement may be open to debate. We then move on to discuss four other controversies that …
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Current Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Nov 2017
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Current Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Community-engaged operations research is an extension of multiple OR/MS traditions to support participatory scholarship, localized impact and social change. It applies critical thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, community participation and decision modeling to local interventions. It emphasizes the needs, voices and values of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. Through a survey of current scholarship in two complementary areas of inquiry, ‘community operational research’ (referring to work by primarily UK-based researchers) and ‘community-based operations research’ (referring to work by primarily US-based researchers), we develop principles for community-engaged OR, present critical questions that represent opportunities to expand the impact of this work, and discuss …
Improving Decision-Making Skills Of Nonprofit Professionals, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau, Jason Wright
Oct 2017
Improving Decision-Making Skills Of Nonprofit Professionals, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau, Jason Wright
Michael P. Johnson
Nonprofits face gaps in organizational capacity, including program design and evaluation, but previous research suggests that capacity-building exercises have a positive effect. We describe a data analytics training workshop with staff from Boston-area nonprofits reflecting a wide range of sectors. Through analysis of participant work on case studies provided by the instructor, we examine how participants made sense of training materials, the various strategies employed by participants to solve three case study problems, and participant feedback about the session. Our findings provide a basis for novel interventions in community based operations research.
Decision Modeling For Housing And Community Development: A Methodology For Evidence-Based Urban And Regional Planning, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Aug 2017
Decision Modeling For Housing And Community Development: A Methodology For Evidence-Based Urban And Regional Planning, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Urban community development corporations and other local institutions routinely face challenging problems in housing and economic development that require substantial expertise in data analytics and decision modeling. Recent research, inspired by local responses to the housing foreclosure crisis, and developed in cooperation with Boston-area CDCs, has resulted in a collection of applications that can assist CDCs and similar organizations to design local interventions for acquisition and redevelopment of housing. This paper describes these applications. The first of these is values and objective design, i.e. the process of identifying decision opportunities. The second of these is data analytics, or …
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Opportunities, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Feb 2017
Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Opportunities, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
Scholars in multiple disciplines intersecting operations research have developed theory and applications to address the question, how can the decision sciences develop new ways to solve problems of special interest to organizations and individuals situated in geographically, economically and socially circumscribed communities? The motivation for this work is the belief that mission-driven and resource-constrained nonprofit organizations, and underrepresented, underserved, or vulnerable populations may have special needs for analytic and empirical problem-solving methods that have traditionally received less emphasis in traditional operations research and management science research and teaching. Scholarship in this area, alternatively labeled ‘community operational research’ (mostly in the …
Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Nov 2016
Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Michael P. Johnson
Main Street organizations develop local development initiatives that support economic and social goals. We describe an application of value-focused thinking and community-based operations research to identify economic development performance metrics and decision alternatives for local development interventions. Using interviews with stakeholders in three Boston communities, we show how values structures vary across communities and stakeholder groups and how attributes can be quantified using a variety of data sources. We conclude by presenting a composite values structure to support improved operations management and strategy design for all Boston Main Street districts.
An Agenda For Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or/Ms/Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau
Nov 2016
An Agenda For Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or/Ms/Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau
Michael P. Johnson
Diversity and inclusion have been widely studied and debated, most often within the social sciences. What contributions can operations research, management science and analytics make to this domain of inquiry? This talk will critically examine assumptions and practices within the decision sciences that may support as well impede diversity- and inclusion-related research, and propose a research agenda that can challenge yet enrich our profession.
Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Sep 2016
Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Michael P. Johnson
Main Street organizations are community-based nonprofits across the USA dedicated to local economic development through physical improvements, technical assistance to businesses, marketing and placebuilding. In this paper we identify metrics associated with success in local economic development and generate decision opportunities for improved program design and implementation. Our community partners, Main Street organizations in the city of Boston, want to ensure that data they collect about their service areas can help them measure progress towards achieving their individual goals as well as identify programs and initiatives that make best use of their resources and expertise. Using a mixed methods, inductive …
Community-Based Operations Research: Data Analytics And Decision Modeling For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Mar 2016
Community-Based Operations Research: Data Analytics And Decision Modeling For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
‘Community-based operations research’ is an extension of multiple traditions in OR/MS to produce research for local change. CBOR attempts to incorporate critical thinking, evidence-based policy design and prescriptive decision modeling. This presentation introduces a theory of CBOR and reviews current applications to support a collection of new scholarship. These applications include foreclosure response, vacant land management and local economic development. We conclude with suggestions to expand the field of CBOR.
How Can Value Elicitation In Adult Basic Education Support Learners’ Success In Goal-Setting Policy?, Alma H. Biba, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Feb 2016
How Can Value Elicitation In Adult Basic Education Support Learners’ Success In Goal-Setting Policy?, Alma H. Biba, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
For the last two decades, federal legislation and Massachusetts’ state ABE policies have linked adult learners’ educational outcomes to accountability requirements. Using a multi-method approach ABE learners’ goal setting was presented as a decision problem in order to reveal and disentangle the conflicting preferences fueled by outcome-based accountability requirements. Elicitation of values using value-focused thinking (VFT) methodology revealed that learner’s self-defined goals are consistently distinct from program-defined goals, that teachers recognize this disjunction, and that efforts to reconcile the two could yield significant improvements in ABE program outcomes.
Course Syllabus: Ppol-G 742 Community-Based Operations Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Dec 2015
Course Syllabus: Ppol-G 742 Community-Based Operations Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr.
Michael P. Johnson
This elective course in the Public Policy PhD program provides an introduction to a wide range of decision models, methods and applications that help practitioners and researchers better understand how to represent common services and systems, and how to design practical solutions that can help people and organizations do their jobs better. Examples of public sector applications we will address include: emergency and post-disaster planning, human services, energy and natural resources and housing and community development. This course emphasizes special challenges in community-based public-sector decision-making. Communities of interest may be defined by geography, population, or a particular type of service …
Community-Engaged Decision Modeling For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Nov 2015
Community-Engaged Decision Modeling For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani
Michael P. Johnson
This presentation contains current results from a research project to identify success metrics and decision opportunities for Boston Main Streets organizations. It represents an application of qualitative decision analytic methods for values and objectives design
Introducing The Concept Of Resilience Into Maritime Safety, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs Phd, Gesa Praetorius, Armando Graziano, Aditi Kataria, Michael Baldauf
Oct 2015
Introducing The Concept Of Resilience Into Maritime Safety, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs Phd, Gesa Praetorius, Armando Graziano, Aditi Kataria, Michael Baldauf
Michael Baldauf
The maritime industry is still characterized by prescriptive standards and reactive approaches in relation to safety and risk management to a large extent. For a very long time, responses to maritime accidents have been in terms of automation, regulation and training. While this as such is not wrong, it does not offer the full potential that concepts of resilience seem to suggest. The typical question that is predominately asked is still why things go wrong when accidents occur and search for causes and explanations is undertaken. An evaluation of the safety level achieved system and a focus on system components …
Introducing The Concept Of Resilience Into Maritime Safety, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs Phd, Gesa Praetorius, Armando Graziano, Aditi Kataria, Michael Baldauf
Oct 2015
Introducing The Concept Of Resilience Into Maritime Safety, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs Phd, Gesa Praetorius, Armando Graziano, Aditi Kataria, Michael Baldauf
Gesa Praetorius
The maritime industry is still characterized by prescriptive standards and reactive approaches in relation to safety and risk management to a large extent. For a very long time, responses to maritime accidents have been in terms of automation, regulation and training. While this as such is not wrong, it does not offer the full potential that concepts of resilience seem to suggest. The typical question that is predominately asked is still why things go wrong when accidents occur and search for causes and explanations is undertaken. An evaluation of the safety level achieved system and a focus on system components …
From Human Reliability To Resilience & System Performance - Adapting To A Changing World, Gesa Praetorius, Fulko C. Van Westrenen
Oct 2015
From Human Reliability To Resilience & System Performance - Adapting To A Changing World, Gesa Praetorius, Fulko C. Van Westrenen
Gesa Praetorius
Presentation given at the IALA Human Factors in VTS workshop, 11 October 2015, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Cyclades – Crew-Centered Design And Operation Of Ships And Ship Systems For Safer Maritime Operations, Gesa Praetorius
Aug 2015
Cyclades – Crew-Centered Design And Operation Of Ships And Ship Systems For Safer Maritime Operations, Gesa Praetorius
Gesa Praetorius
Presentation given at "Maritim Sikkerhed – Sunhed og Miljø" in Nyborg, 27 August 2015.
Data And Analytics For Neighborhood Development: Smart Shrinkage Decision Modeling In Baltimore, Maryland, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza D. Whiteman
Jul 2015
Data And Analytics For Neighborhood Development: Smart Shrinkage Decision Modeling In Baltimore, Maryland, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza D. Whiteman
Michael P. Johnson
Many older cities in the United States confront the problem of long-term decline in population and economic activity resulting in blighted conditions that make conventional revitalization initiatives unlikely to succeed. Smart shrinkage, a planning approach that emphasizes alternative land uses while preserving quality of life, offers a way for cities to remain desirable places to live and work. However, there is little research on empirical methods to support planning decisions consistent with smart shrinkage. We present results from two studies with planners from the City of Baltimore that provide novel insights regarding ways in which planners can perform vacant property …
Increased Awareness For Maritime Human Factors Through E-Learning In Crew-Centered Design, Gesa Praetorius, Aditi Kataria, Erik Styhr Petersen, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs, Michael Baldauf, Nina Kähler
Jun 2015
Increased Awareness For Maritime Human Factors Through E-Learning In Crew-Centered Design, Gesa Praetorius, Aditi Kataria, Erik Styhr Petersen, Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs, Michael Baldauf, Nina Kähler
Gesa Praetorius
In the past two decades, the need to address human factors in shipping through integration of ergonomics in the design of ships and shipboard equipment has increased significantly as a result of the technological development of modern ships. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations’ specialized organizationfor ship safety issues, has adopted a vision to address human factors as a key element for the improvement of maritime safety, and in that context acknowledges the human element as complex and multi-dimensional. IMO’s standards focus on the avoidance of human and organization error. But in spite of this, and despite the …
Data And Analytics For Neighborhood Development: Smart Shrinkage Decision Modeling In Baltimore, Maryland, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza D. Whiteman
Jun 2015
Data And Analytics For Neighborhood Development: Smart Shrinkage Decision Modeling In Baltimore, Maryland, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza D. Whiteman
Michael P. Johnson
Many older cities in the United States confront the problem of long-term declines in population and economic activity resulting in blighted conditions that make conventional revitalization initiatives unlikely to succeed. Smart shrinkage, a planning approach that emphasizes alternative land uses while preserving quality of life, offers a way for cities to remain desirable places to live and work. However, there is little research on empirical methods to support planning decisions consistent with smart shrinkage. We present results from two studies with planners from the City of Baltimore that provide novel insights regarding ways in which planners can perform vacant property …
